Contracts for sale of land – Compromise settlement – Emails – Electronic signature – Statutory compliance – Specific performance

Stavros Neocleous and Another v Christine Rees [2019] EWHC 2462 (Ch) (HHJ Pearce) (20 September 2019)

This case is of real significance to practitioners. The focus is on the settlement of a property dispute which provided for the sale and transfer of a parcel of land by one party to the other. The terms of settlement were set out in exchanges of emails. One party chose to renege and declined to complete the transaction. The other party sought the remedy of specific performance. The case turned on the status of an electronic signature on an email.